In current use today to facilitate packaging and transport of a plurality of containers such as bottles, cans and the like, are molded plastic container carriers of modified sheet form which bear a plurality of openings through which portions of the bottles or can protrude such that they are frictionally gripped. In the case of bottles, the carriers are provided with spaced holes or openings generally sized to the necks of the bottles and being stretched or otherwise deformed locally to permit the carriers to move downward onto the bottlenecks such that the bottle caps and the upper portions of the necks protrude through the holes with carrier portions at the necks frictionally gripping the bottles beneath the enlarged caps.
Various machines or production apparatus have been devised for automatically effecting the assembly of the carriers to a grouped number of bottles to form an easily transportable, hand carried package. One such machine forms the subject matter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,807 to Eugene F. Doucette issuing Feb. 25, 1975. The applicator machine of that patent is highly complex and fully automated, requiring synchronous movement of many different parts. A plurality of stacks of nested carriers are arranged on a turret. The turret is rotated to place the individual stacks, one at a time as needed directly overlying a hopper. The nested stacks are then released into the hopper where they are frictionally maintained and prevented from discharging through the bottom of the hopper. A plurality of worm gears constitute drive mechanisms to pull off the carriers, one at a time in a continuous fashion, and drop them onto an inclined carrier delivery conveyor belt. A gating mechanism at the bottom, exit end of the conveyor belt holds the carriers in a position such that its lead end extends downstream of the conveyor and in the path of movement of the tops of the bottle containers as they are transported on a horizontally oriented endless conveyor mechanism. The bottle containers are brought to a first assembly station by means of a container conveyor belt, and, at that station, the containers come into contact with a first pair of star wheels. The star wheels are positioned on opposite sides of the conveyor belt and operate to position the containers substantially perfectly so as to fit the indentations on the carriers. The exit end of the carrier conveyor is also at this assembly station such that, as the bottles move along the conveyor, the tops of the bottles grab the front end of the carrier presently at the exit of the carrier conveyor and pull the entire carrier out of the gate, whereby it is properly fitted to the tops of six or eight bottles, depending upon whether the machine is arranged for forming six-packs or eight-packs.
Thereafter, the containers with the carrier riding on the tops of the bottles pass to a final assembly station, which includes an applicator wheel. The application wheel is provided with indentations on its periphery at positions corresponding to the tops of the containers which pass beneath the wheel which is rotated about a horizontal axis and which overlies the containers and the carrier. The wheel is pivotably mounted and biased downwardly so as not to crush the bottles in case there is misregistration between the indented portions of the application wheel and the tops of the containers.
A second pair of star wheels insure alignment of the bottle containers at the final assembly station with the indented portions of the application wheel. The star wheels are positioned just below and slightly in advance of the application wheel. As the bottles carrying the carrier pass beneath the application wheel, the wheel forces the carrier downwardly, and the bottle tops are projected through small diameter openings within the carrier, such that the carrier grips the necks of the bottles just below the bottle caps.
While the machine of the referred to patent operates adequately to place the molded carrier onto the multiple bottles to create carrying packages in six-pack or eight-pack form, the machine is highly complicated due to the necessity for synchronously moving the bottles and the carrier and for insuring that synchronism, once initiated, continues throughout the various stations of the machine.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved simplified and low cost carrier applicator for bottle containers, in which there is no necessity to synchronously drive the bottles, the carrier or the applicator wheel, and in which any synchronization to effect container and carrier assembly is achieved by the components themselves.